Structure of Shabads

All Shabads or hymns contained in Guru Granth Sahib are classified in different Ragas except the first composition called Japji Sahib and the Swayyas, Saloks and Ragmala at the end of the holy Granth. The Shabads or hymns in Guru Granth Sahib can be classified as by the number of verses per hymn as follows:

No. of verses

Name of format

Total presentin SGGS

2

dupadas

608

3

tripade

73

4

chaupadas

1,255

5

panchpadas

80

6

chhepedas

11 verses

8

Ashtpadian

311

16

sohilas

62

Index of the Holy Granth

The Shabads or hymns are also classified into chapters named as musical Raags. There is a non-Raag section at the beginning and end of the Guru Granth Sahib. Although according to the index of Ragas in Ragmala, the total number of Ragas and Raginis is 84, the Guru has used only 31 for the compositions in the Guru Granth. So the Granth is arranged firstly according to the Raga, secondly, according to the nature or metre of the poem, thirdly authorship, and fourthly the clef . The ordinary edition of Adi Granth Sahib contains 1430 pages as under :